Cap nails are often used to secure various types of home construction materials in place. For example cap nails are often used to secure roofing felt, house wrap, and foam insulation. Conventional cap nails typically comprise a relatively standard nail having a shank and head with a cap (or washer) inserted over the shank. The cap engages a larger area of the material and thereby reduces the magnitude of force exerted by the nail onto the material being secured. As a result, the use of cap nails to secure thin sheeting material reduces the incidence of tears or rips in the material and such nails are less likely to be driven through the material.
The nail itself is typically formed of steel or stainless steel, while the cap may be made from plastic, steel, or stainless steel. The cap often has a round shape, however square or other shapes are used as well.
Conventional cap nails are provided in boxes or buckets as a plurality of individual, loose units. During use, each individual cap nail is pulled from the container and held as it is hammered in place. Using such conventionally provided cap nails results in additional labor time needed to select and properly orientate each cap nail before hammering. Conventional cap nails may also be accidentally dropped, resulting in wasted materials and additional wasted time.
Similar problems have been addressed with regard to regular nails (i.e., nails not having caps) by providing them in collated nail strips. Collated regular nails, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,940,081 to Juilfs and U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,197 to Cario, et al., have modified heads which allow the nails to be assembled in a nestled arrangement. The modifications to the regular nail heads allow the nails to be placed more closely to one another while still providing adequate head surface against which a driving force may be applied to dispense the nail. Adhesive material is applied to the shanks of the nestled nails to thereby form a strip of collated nails suitable for use in a nail dispensing machine. As noted above, however, cap nails have a cap which is relative larger than the nail head, and therefore the head modifications disclosed in these patents are not effective for collating cap nails.